Mission Niagara Falls Begins

Will include pictures when I figure out how to on my I pad.

First of all, we apologize for not posting anything on the blog sooner.  We finally found wifi!
After a send-off prayer with parents we started the journey to the far northwest corner of our state.  Our first bathroom break was the first or second rest stop on the Thruway, in case you hadn't noticed, they all look the same after a while.  The vans were excited at first then settled into the quiet of sleeping and listening to music.

For lunch we stopped in the beautiful town of Utica, NY, nestled on the Erie Canal.  We bypassed our favorite upscale restaurant right on the canal and went to another upstate/Pennsylvania favorite--Moe's.  In not time we had 15 burritos or salads and were back in the vans for the afternoon.  We finally arrived in Niagara Falls and found our way to the manse of the Methodist church--our home for the week.  We unloaded our vans, set up our sleeping areas and then headed out for pizza.  After pizza we waited for Elisabeth to run into the grocery store for some supplies.  While the rest of us sat in the parking lot we had a free fireworks show, courtesy of a massive Great Lakes thunder storm.  It looks pretty ominous at first, but it blew through quickly.

Back at the house we circled up for a meeting and then headed to bed.


The following essay was a collaborative effort of Graham, River and Theo!
Greece lost and it made me sad.  We ate at Moe's and had great, filling burritos.  We saw a cat upstairs in someone else's house.

MONDAY, JUNE 30.

Everyone was slow getting up, but they did!  By 9 am we were at the Community Mission of Niagara Falls, ready to get to work. The staff gave us the background on the mission and it is amazing.  They serve 75000 meals a year and provide many services to countless thousands of people.  Our first assignments were to break into two groups.  One group went with Elisabeth to start getting ready for Vacation Bible School tomorrow.  The other group went with Sarah to organize a closet of donated toys that looked like something from the movie, "hoarders."  Sarah looked so excited, she couldn't wait to take charge and she certainly did.  Our youth started slowly, but soon got into the project and maybe even were having fun.  They tried on Halloween masks and checked out all the toys as they brought them out to be sorted.

Oh, and Dale saw the opportunity to get started on the blog.
We'll post at least one a day, so check back often.